I can’t lie, after all the snow and rain over the last few weeks I have found myself dreaming of sunshine and sandy shores. A combination of the wintry weather and Florence’s current bought of chicken pox has got me suffering from some serious cabin fever and I am craving some time away somewhere hot. I need to feel the sun on my face, to relax with my family away from the every day chores and get in some all important quality time. Even more so than summer sun though, I am craving adventure and am seeking the chance to explore.

Sean & I have always been keen travellers. While usually opting to stay in resorts we always adventure out to places further afield to take int he local culture. I make a point of learning some of the language of the country I am visiting and we both like to get to know the locals. In 2012, we headed to Tunisia and it was just the most wonderful trip. We met so many people and learned so much about the local culture.

Over the last eight years, we’ve put together a bit of a travel bucket list of places we’d love to visit in the next few years and there are two destinations that top that list above all others.

Kefalonia

If I could move to any country in the world, it would be Kefalonia without any doubt. I am fortunate enough to have already visited this beautiful Greek Island twice before back when Iw as a teenager. The peace & tranquility of this beautiful little corner of the world was always a welcome relief from our every day chaos. The Island first stole my heart nine years ago and I’d love to take my own family back one day. Whenever I picture our Kefalonian trip I imagine staying in a big & beautiful villa with all of our family with us spending our days by the pool, exploring the little quaint villages and days by the sea. 

Staying in a villa would give us all the flexibility you need when travelling in a large group and I think it’d be perfect for babies first holiday. You can go at your own pace, choose and cook your own food as and when you’re ready & there’s plenty of space inside & out for baby play activities in the shade. PLUS you get unlimited pool time!

Florence

Okay, so it might be a bit Cliche, but I am intent on a trip to #FlorencewithFlorence. It just has to be done doesn’t it? Italy has always intrigued me and it just seems like Florence would be an obvious place to start our Italian adventures. I’ve never really done an overseas city break before either and I can just picture us exploring and taking in the sights before returning to a little apartment full of charm to kick back and relax with a good glass of wine. 

Where do you like to take your family abroad over the summer?

*This is a collaborative post.

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We had such a lovely weekend as a family this week. It’s the first weekend we’ve spent all together for months and we soo needed it. After a quiet & chilled out day on Saturday we headed to Godstone Farm with some friends for a day of farm yard fun.

Godstone farm is about half an hour away from where we live and is a place I have fond memories of visiting myself as a little girl. Here you will find all of the animals you would expect to find on the farm, from goats & pigs to ferrets & birds. There was even a tortoise!

Many of the animal pens have feeding stations where you can place the animal feed purchased at the check in desk and crank it up to their troughs. They also run feeding sessions for the pigs each day.

After saying a quick hello to the goats, we made our way  to the top barn where we came across donkeys, Shetland ponies & pigglets. Our friend made quite the impression on Penny the Pig!

While she’s still too young to really take full advantage of all the fun of the farm, Florence is quite the nosey parker so we turned her pushchair around so she could see all that was going on. She was transfixed by the donkeys! 

The animals seem very used to people & were quite happy to be stroked and petted. Once we’d washed our hands, we made our way out to explore the farm some more, paying a visit to the chickens and horses before we reached the Dino trail. 

I didn’t get any photos of the Dino trail but it is a brilliant addition to the farm. With lots of dinosaur models and factoids along the route, it’s great for older children and a great interactive way for them to learn about the prehistoric creatures. There were also activities for children to take part in including digging for bones in the sand pit, posing in funny cut out photo booths and setting up camp in a den built from sticks. The possibilities for imaginative play were endless!

By now the babies were getting hungry and it was freezing so we made our way to the Soft Play barn where the older children could play while we warmed up with a cup of tea and the babies had their milk. Unfortunately the baby change & toilet facilities were closed here as they were under maintenance so it was a case of changing Florence’s nappy in the pushchair when the need arose, but just outside the play barn there were some portaloo cabins for adults & older children. Florence had her first experience of soft play in the baby area and loved it. Having been in her pushchair or sat on our laps for quite a while it was the perfect opportunity for her to stretch & move aboutt s little.  

At 2.30pm it was time for the Hogstacle Race! A chance to guess which of the adorable piglets would complete the specially design obstacle course the quickest- Meg, Luna or Sabrina. It was great fun for the littlies ( and the adults too!) to cheer them on and guess who might win the best of three. 

As we were visiting at the end of October half term, they had lots of activities going on for kids. We headed off in search of Willa the Witch and the face painting tent. The queues for both were quite long and so the children chose to have their faces painted over meeting the witch who we knew we would see later on that day anyway. After the littlies were turned into spooky characters, we went to have some dinner at the cafe. It’s safe to say that it was a bit cramped inside and we had to leave the pushchairs outside, though we did manage to gather enough chairs for all 8 of us. I had a jacket potato and Sean had chilli con carne with chips. I think together with a drink it came to around £10, so not too bad.

We stayed a while before visiting the gift shop and taking one last wander around the farm before the main event… the fireworks! We were among the lucky few who managed to grab a bench in the main play area from which to watch them and while  we were waiting for the display to begin, we couldn’t help but treat ourselves to an ice cream cone each from the kiosk despite it being freezing cold out! The fireworks began at the exact time advertised and the brilliant thing about this display was that they were low bang – perfect for little ears!  It was Florence’s first firework display and she loved watching them light up the sky in all of their colour and wasn’t at all perturbed by the dull bangs! 

The display was set to music and lasted about 20 minutes which was just the right length of time I think.

We had such a lovely day at the farm and we’re looking forward to going back to meet Father Christmas! 

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